Perhaps because I may be on the outer fringe of the autism spectrum, I’ve always had an obsession with figures, quantifying and measurement. I’m also a weather buff – most farmers are to some degree.

But whereas some farmers are happy enough to measure rainfall by less scientific means, like the size of a puddle on the yard or what’s in the dog’s dish, I always have to put a precise figure on it.

If I was a dairy farmer I’d be obsessive about grass measurement, but we traditional beef farmers have an aversion to buying fertiliser and a field either has grass or it hasn’t.

There was a time when I could memorise phone numbers and lots of useful tillage farmer stuff, like the grain yield of every field, even going back a few years. Nowadays that’s all changed, as my memory is verging on hopeless and I don’t recall what I did two days ago.

Speaking of poor memory, I had what I thought was a good piece written for this week and I gave it to Mrs P to read – as always – only to be told that I’d written the exact same piece before. I didn’t believe her, but upon looking back she was proven right – it was only two years ago. I’d hardly get away with that…

It’s called growing older, which, if it keeps going at this rate, it’s going to be great fun. I can’t even recall much about last harvest except I think the weather was good and the yields were bad. However, I certainly remember the great prices.

But I’ve never relied on my memory for weather information and, as part of the obsession with figures, I’ve faithfully recorded the rainfall since 1981 when I was 21. I’ve also had a barograph which records atmospheric pressure for years.

I made my first weathervane when I was a kid – it indicates wind direction.

The current version dates from 1995 and it’s a Fendt 611 and a four-furrow plough, which is still ploughing faithfully into the wind, but it’s due an upgrade.

My first rain gauge was a cheap little plastic affair in the shape of a flower, for which reason its accuracy was dubious.

I’ve never relied on my memory for weather information and, as part of the obsession with figures, I’ve faithfully recorded the rainfall since 1981 when I was 21

In the 1990s, I progressed to a small electronic tipping spoon rain gauge, but again its accuracy was suspect. I then renounced modern technology and obtained an ex-Met Éireann brass 5in collector, which I trust and still use.

But technology has greatly moved on in the meantime and so it was with delight that I discovered the Sencrop range of weather measurement instruments.

Sencrop is a French company which could be on to something big. It puts cloud-based wizardry onto electronic weather instruments, which means you can access live information from your own weather station through your smartphone. Writing this on 27 April, I can tell you that the current temperature at the station is 7°C, with a low of 5°C last night and a maximum of 11°C today. And the same sort of stuff for rainfall and humidity (which is key), and wind if you want it.

This information, to a weather buff like me, is as sweet as cruising down to Linnane’s of New Quay on the Clare coast on a sunny Saturday with the roof down.

But of course all this data comes at a price. It’s around €600 to buy the station and there’s an annual sub of €180. I think it’ll be worth it – you’d easily spend that on wine gums in a year.